Barbados Spending $30 Million on Sports Facilities

The Barbados National Sports Council is investing $30 million in sports facilities to benefit nine sporting bodes as part of the island’s sports tourism strategy.

The Capital Projects will benefit athletics, cricket, netball, basketball, volleyball, badminton, squash, beach volleyball and beach wrestling. One of the new facilities, which will accommodate beach volleyball and beach wrestling, has capacity for about 500 spectators.

“Sports tourism is top of mind as always and I believe that having this facility here will add to that,” Barbados’ Minister of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith told local reporters recently. “This is phase one of the project. I believe it is 90 percent completed. It is expected that this will go well in terms of us hosting tournaments.”

The Wildey facility is also home to a multi-purpose badminton and squash court, as well as a new athletics track near the aquatic center and the Wildey field hockey turf. Badminton and squash courts are expected to be completed within 18 to 24 months. A netball stadium will become a multi-purpose facility for basketball and volleyball as well.

“The truth is that we cannot build a facility for every single national federation, so what we’re trying to do as much as possible is combine sports at a particular location,” Griffith said.

Griffith told local reporters the financial initiative is about national sporting development.

“Government is committed to ensuring that our sports project on the island is growing and continues to expand in terms of the spend, as $30 million in sports is a lot of money for an island of our size, but we believe that this is a necessary investment in the future,” he said.